IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/hdnspu/197190.html

Awareness, Access, and Perceptions around Parental Benefits among Urban Argentinians

Author

Listed:
  • Cherchi, Ludovica
  • Jain, Himanshi

Abstract

This paper examines parental benefits in Argentina, focusing on their role in addressing gender inequality and labor market challenges during pregnancy and post-childbirth. Drawing on the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 183, the study extends its core elements of maternity protection to evaluate the needs of formal and informal sector workers. Using desk research and a survey of 832 urban Argentinians, the findings highlight a benefits system that is more inclusive than many in the region, with a Parenthood score above the Latin American and Caribbean average. However, significant gaps persist, including disparities between formal and informal workers, complex eligibility rules, insufficient leave durations, limited monitoring mechanisms, and unmet parental needs. To enhance inclusivity and accessibility, the paper recommends extending minimum leave durations, financing paternity leave through social security contributions, simplifying income support programs, improving data transparency, addressing childcare gaps for working parents, and fostering compliance with family-friendly workplace policies. Additionally, there is a need for economic analysis of these programs' fiscal costs and sustainability, particularly given their reliance on hybrid financing models. The study advocates a shift from maternity-focused policies to a comprehensive parental benefits framework that integrates fathers, aligns with labor market dynamics, promotes gender equality, and ensures long-term fiscal sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Cherchi, Ludovica & Jain, Himanshi, 2025. "Awareness, Access, and Perceptions around Parental Benefits among Urban Argentinians," The Social Policy and Labor Discussion Paper Series 197190, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:197190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099020925201535175/pdf/P176617-629a5538-c400-431e-b8f2-9e26a349f984.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephan Klasen, 2019. "What Explains Uneven Female Labor Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Countries?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 161-197.
    2. repec:wbk:wbpubs:39462 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Pinjas Albagli & Tomás Rau, 2019. "The Effects of a Maternity Leave Reform on Children's Abilities and Maternal Outcomes in Chile," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(619), pages 1015-1047.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amin, Mohammad & Islam, Asif Mohammed, 2022. "The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10188, The World Bank.
    2. Pelin Akyol & Zeynep Yılmaz, 2024. "Effects of Grandmothers' Proximity on Mothers' Labour Force Participation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(5), pages 1122-1162, October.
    3. Nikolova, Elena & Polansky, Jakub, 2022. "Children and Female Employment in Mongolia," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1015, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Mehak Majeed, 2025. "Marketability of Care Activities: A Pathway to Women’s Empowerment," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 30(1), pages 88-104, June.
    5. Elena Nikolova & Jakub Polansky, 2022. "Children and Female Employment in Mongolia," Discussion Papers 61, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    6. Roy, Kusumita Bardhan & Tripathi, Sabyasachi, 2025. "Determinants of Female Employment in Agriculture, Industry, and Service Sector: A cross country analysis," MPRA Paper 124674, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Esha Chatterjee & Reeve D. Vanneman, 2022. "Women's Low Employment Rates in India: Cultural and Structural Explanations," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 445-474, June.
    8. Elham Taheri & Fatma Güven Lisaniler & Cem Payaslioğlu, 2021. "Female Labour Force Participation: What Prevents Sustainable Development Goals from Being Realised in Iran?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Evans David K. & Akmal Maryam & Jakiela Pamela, 2021. "Gender gaps in education: The long view," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, January.
    10. Davis, Lewis S. & Mavisakalyan, Astghik, 2024. "Individualism and the legal status of prostitution," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 714-732.
    11. Centro Internacional de Políticas para el Crecimiento Inclusivo (IPC-IG) & UNICEF — Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe, 2020. "Resumen Ejecutivo — Maternidad y paternidad en el lugar de trabajo en América Latina y el Caribe — políticas para la licencia de maternidad y paternidad y apoyo a la lactancia materna," Research Report Spanish (Country Study) 39, International Policy Centre.
    12. Centro Internacional de Políticas para el Crecimiento Inclusivo (IPC-IG) & UNICEF — Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe, 2020. "Maternidad y paternidad en el lugar de trabajo en América Latina y el Caribe — políticas para la licencia de maternidad y paternidad y apoyo a la lactancia materna," Research Report Spanish (Country Study) 40, International Policy Centre.
    13. Siwan Anderson, 2022. "Unbundling female empowerment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1701, November.
    14. Berga, Helen & Abdisa, Lamessa T., 2022. "Assessing Gender Gap in Wage and Self-Employment: Evidence from Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 31(01), April.
    15. Irene Selwaness & Caroline Krafft, 2021. "The Dynamics of Family Formation and Women’s Work: What Facilitates and Hinders Female Employment in the Middle East and North Africa?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(3), pages 533-587, June.
    16. Almeida, Eloiza R.F. & Araújo, Veneziano & Gonçalves, Solange L., 2022. "Urban wage premium for women: evidence across the wage distribution," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    17. Halim,Daniel Zefanya & Perova,Elizaveta & Reynolds,Sarah, 2021. "Childcare and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9828, The World Bank.
    18. Subrata SAHA & Arifa SULTANA & Sanjoy Kumar SAHA, 2022. "Determinants Of Female Labor Force Participation In Tangail District In Bangladesh: A Logistic Regression Analysis," CrossCultural Management Journal, Fundația Română pentru Inteligența Afacerii, Editorial Department, issue 1, pages 45-57, July.
    19. Cecilia Machado & Valdemar Neto & Christiane Szerman, 2023. "Firm and Worker Responses to Extensions in Paid Maternity Leave," CESifo Working Paper Series 10736, CESifo.
    20. M. Ayhan Kose & Franziska Ohnsorge, 2023. "Slowing Growth: More Than a Rough Patch," CAMA Working Papers 2023-23, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:197190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Aaron F Buchsbaum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.